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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this place dear to him, considering part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. This happy association continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull support clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to calmly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.